All of Doctor Who, one episode at a time!

Episode 014 – “The Roof of the World”

And so behold a story which, in one episode, contains more Chinese characters than the entirety of Firefly. This is also episode number fourteen, which is one more than that other series. So that’s amusing.

Also, they said the title in the thing! Repeatedly!

Thanks to a friend, I’m now watching my first reconstruction, and it’s the first episode of “Marco Polo”, which I have never seen. So…that’s a thing!

This is the first of the proper historicals”. Yes, “100,000 BC” took place in the past, but I don’t recall reading about the Tribe of Gum in my history classes. This is thus the first historical since it takes place in the past, on Earth, features actual historical figures, and has no sci-fi elements other than the TARDIS and the crew. These stories were made to be educational.

And boy, do we quickly move into the educational aspects of the show. Within a few minutes of meeting Marco Polo, we learn about him, the Mongols, “Cathay”, and why water boils at a different temperature in higher altitudes.

I must say that this is a pretty good start to this story. There’s tension and some good pacing and dialogue. Nothing really bad to report! Of course we are only one seventh of the way through, so…yeah.